[3] Soon after the referendum, Reuters, Al Jazeera, CNN en Español and the Financial Times projected the failure of all eight of its proposals, with president Guillermo Lasso eventually conceding defeat.
Upon assuming the presidency, Lasso faced a number of crises in parliament, which added to the strikes and protests by indigenous groups against poverty and mining activities and oil exploration on their ancestral lands.
[8][9] In a politically fragile position, Lasso announced on 12 September 2022 his plans to hold a popular vote on eight questions which would allow him to "face problems Ecuador has not been able to solve in the past".
This included extradition of Ecuadorians accused of working in international organised crime, reducing the number of National Assembly members from 137 to 100, establishing protection of water resources and funding for communities and groups for nature conservation.
[11] After the questions were approved by the constitutional court, President Lasso signed a decree on 29 November to hold a referendum on 5 February 2023, the same day as elections for municipal and provincial councillors as well as members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control.
The fourth referendum question suggests setting a minimum number of members for a political party to be registered and participate in elections.
Referendum question six proposes allowing the National Assembly to choose members of the council through indirect suffrage.
[16][26] Opinion polls conducted prior to the voted consistently indicated that all the questions would receive positive responses, mostly by ample margins.